PHOTO BY BR I A N KA I SER •
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here’s nothing bourgeois about beer. Even craft beer shuns the hoity-toity set. So when you’re a local brewery trying to make a statement in a crowded market, you don’t aim for refined. You go eclectic. You go bold. You go for what-the-fuck. And you find a beer can artist who can match that vision. Sadly, there isn’t a Yellow Pages listing for that. So Seventh Son Brewing did the next best thing and phoned a friend—a bunch of them, in fact. It helps when coowners Jen Burton and Collin Castore and head brewer Colin Vent belong to a social circle overflowing with right-brainers. A graphic designer and illustrator, Will Fugman (long u, silent g) befriended Burton when they both lived in the Columbus College of Art and Design dorms. Fugman was tapped to do concept art for the company before the brewery opened in 2013 and has since designed about 22 cans and bottles, including all the new releases in 2018 and 2019. Vent went a less-formal artistic route and hired his tattoo artist. Mike Moses was finishing up a yearlong sleeve on Vent’s left arm when Vent convinced him to design a series of 750 ml bottle labels in 2015. Evan Wolff, who lived in Columbus for seven years before moving to Cincinnati, met Burton when they worked the Ace of Cups bar together. His lone can design two years ago turned out to be one of the more popular ones, Assistant Manager American golden ale. It features Wolff’s take on Old Horatio, Seventh Son’s “assistant manager” tabby cat, who has amassed a nearly 3,700-human Instagram following (@assistantmanagercat). Since the company anthropomorphizes the cat—he’s the director of pest control operations and customer satisfaction—Wolff thought he’d do the same on the can. Horatio is pictured taking a big swig of “Purrliferous” beer (a nod to Proliferous, a Seventh Son staple) while texting a review on “Yalp.” Known more for his concert fliers and album cover art, Wolff got the simple pen-and-ink drawing right on the first take. “The beer can is almost like an LP cover,” says Wolff, who returns to Columbus often with his band Vacation for Ace of Cups gigs. “That’s almost like the next, not logical thing, but in that same vein.” Castore got to know Meagan Alwood-Karĉić when she tended bar and watched his kid when he co-owned Short North bar Bodega. He asked her to do the Brother Jon Belgian ale can, homage to Jon Putnam, a local actor and friend who officiated Vent’s wedding. •